Yet again the MEPA Board is being recommended to approve an application which will relieve one area of an eyesore and health hazard, and inflict it on an area marked as Out of Development Zone.
The application to shift the existing pumping station away from Mgarr square is positive in principle, but the NGOs FAA, Ramblers and Friends of the Earth propose that the alternative site should be an existing infill site and not a pristine field. The approval of the proposed site cannot be justified especially in view of the fact that other petrol stations already exist in the vicinity of Mgarr.
How can the Environment Protection Division claim that a petrol station of 2,500 square metres which includes a showroom for agricultural machinery, a car wash and a panel beater/sprayer plus the opening of an access road through the back field will not have a visual impact? Have we not learnt from the eyesore petrol stations at Attard, Buqana and Mellieha ridge, all of which have irrevocably ruined areas of high landscape value like this one.
How can the newly-appointed Environment Protection Director and ODZ Area Team Manager approve a permit which violates at least ten MEPA policies and as well as approving the uprooting of protected trees on this site? How much longer are we going to see permits being justified on the grounds of dubious outline permits issued prior to the MEPA Reform, even when the proposed development is about two and a half times that approved in the outline permit?
How can a reformed MEPA, with a remit to protect our natural and built heritage as well as Malta’s resources, recommend the approval of a project which will destroy protected dry stone walls and giren as well reducing the catchment of a neighbouring large water reservoir?
Once again we are obliged to point out that ownership of inexpensive ODZ land does not automatically confer the right to use that land for projects that increase the urbanisation of the countryside negatively impacting our heritage and ecology while continuing to uglify our islands, undermining tourism and our quality of life.